In the rapidly evolving world of legal practice, staying ahead of the curve is essential. For immigration attorneys, the complexity and volume of case law can be overwhelming. Enter Harvey, a cutting-edge AI platform developed in partnership with OpenAI, designed to streamline legal processes and enhance efficiency. Harvey’s innovative approach, custom-trained for legal professionals, is transforming the way attorneys handle their workload, allowing them to focus more on their clients and less on the tedium of legal research.
The Rise of Harvey
Over the past year, Harvey has made significant strides in the legal tech industry. With a team of over 100 dedicated professionals, the company has seen a remarkable 10x revenue increase in 2023 and secured $80 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at an impressive $715 million. This growth is a testament to Harvey’s potential and the trust it has garnered within the legal community.
Custom-Trained AI for Legal Professionals
Harvey’s partnership with OpenAI has led to the creation of a custom-trained model specifically for case law research. This model leverages the power of large language models (LLMs) to perform tasks that require complex reasoning and extensive domain knowledge. From drafting documents and answering intricate litigation queries to identifying discrepancies across numerous contracts, Harvey’s AI is designed to handle it all.
The Founders’ Vision
Harvey was co-founded by Winston Weinberg, an attorney with a background in antitrust and securities litigation, and Gabe Pereyra, an AI researcher with experience at Google Brain and Meta. Their combined expertise has driven Harvey’s mission to synthesize and present information efficiently for legal professionals. The founders recognized the increasing complexity of both transactional work and litigation, and saw AI as the key to simplifying these processes.
An early proof of concept involved using GPT-3 to generate answers for landlord/tenant questions from Reddit’s r/legaladvice, which were then reviewed by attorneys. Impressively, 86 out of 100 responses were deemed ready to send to clients without any edits. This success was a pivotal moment for Harvey, underscoring the potential of AI in legal practice.
Building a Case Law Model with OpenAI
The development of a custom-trained case law model was no small feat. Harvey’s team, in collaboration with OpenAI, began by fine-tuning foundation models and building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems. However, they soon realized the need for a more tailored approach to address the unique challenges of case law research. By integrating 10 billion tokens worth of data, they created a model capable of thorough and accurate case law analysis, complete with source citations.
Real-World Impact
To validate their model, Harvey partnered with 10 of the largest law firms, comparing outputs from their custom case law model with those from GPT-4. The results were striking: 97% of the time, lawyers preferred the custom model’s output due to its comprehensive and nuanced answers. This level of detail and accuracy significantly reduces the risk of hallucination, ensuring that every sentence is supported by cited cases.
Future Prospects
Looking ahead, Harvey aims to further integrate AI into the legal workflow. One exciting focus is the development of agents, which combine multiple model calls into a single output. This will simplify the user experience and reduce the need for extensive prompt engineering. Harvey’s vision is to serve as a supportive team member, taking on routine tasks and allowing legal professionals to dedicate more time to client interactions.
For immigration attorneys, Harvey represents a significant advancement in legal tech. By leveraging the power of AI and partnering with OpenAI, Harvey is not only simplifying complex legal tasks but also setting the stage for the future of legal practice. As the volume of legal work continues to grow, Harvey’s innovative solutions will undoubtedly become an indispensable tool for legal professionals.
